Bayushi Shoju (TCG)

Bayushi Shoju (TCG)
Born:	Unknown
Died:	1123, 12th day of the Month of Togashi
Siblings:	Bayushi Aramoro (half)
Spouse:	Bayushi Kachiko
Children:	Bayushi Dairu
Titles:	Scorpion Clan Champion Bayushi Daimyō Imperial Regent
People

Bayushi Shoju was the Most Dutiful, Master of Secrets, among other titles known and unknown, Daimyō of the Bayushi, and the Champion of the Scorpion Clan.

Appearance

Shoju wore a crimson oni mask, fully fanged and horned, dressing in opulent red-and-black silks. His right arm was withered since his birth, and potent Shosuro potions gave it strength and flexibility.

Scorpion Champion

Family

Bayushi Aramoro was his half-brother. After Shoju was chosen as clan champion he announced his engagemeent with Bayushi Kachiko, marrying the most desirable woman in Rokugan. The couple bore a son, Bayushi Dairu. He had wed her after Yogo astrologers had warned that she must become the champion's wife to avert a calamity befalling the clan. Shoju trusted his wife enough to accept her relationship with the Crane Champion's daugher, Doji Hotaru, Kachiko's lover. Theirs had not been a marriage of love, convenience, or station. Theirs had been a marriage of power. He, a ferocious strategic mastermind, and she, a brilliant political architect. As the two most formidable Scorpion born in the last generation, they had been joined by their clan in the hope that their combined strength would raise the Scorpion like a hidden wave to its apex in the Empire.

Emperor's Trusted Friend

Shoju was a trusted friend of his Lord, the Emperor Hantei the Thirty-Eighth, and his beautiful wife Bayushi Kachiko was the Imperial Advisor. The Scorpion maintained a tenuous alliance with the Lion Clan's leader, Akodo Arasou, against their common enemy, the Crane Clan. In his opinion the Emperor was a weak man, who might have lost the favor of Heaven entirely.

Dominance at the Court

Shoju selected a samurai of the Yogo family to ensure that the Scorpion stay loyal to the Emperor, rather than growing ambitious and emboldened as a result of their new position of dominance. The selected Yogo would be willing to sacrifice everything, and anyone, to fulfill his duty.

Imperial Regent

Shoju, Imperial Regent

Announcement of Emperor's Abdication

The Crown Prince, Hantei Sotorii, was arrogant and willful and could even be cruel, and also there was a darkness within him, a shadow cast across his soul. The Emperor believed that Sotorii was not ready to sit on thr throne, and he would never be. After pondering the matter with the Emerald Champion Akodo Toturi, the Emperor promulgated an Imperial Edict naming his younger son, Hantei Daisetsu, as his heir, rather than his older brother. An old man, of failing health, the Emperor also would abdicate and retire soon, passing the throne to his younger son. And since he was not yet of age, he would ascend as Emperor, under the guidance of a regent, Bayushi Shoju. Hantei Jodan pondered with Shoju his decission, and the event which had fueled it, the duel between the Emperor's brothers, which was championed by Shoju's son, Dairu, on behalf of Hantei Daisetsu.

Emperor's Death

When Shoju was advised by his wife that the Hantei had died, murdered by his son Sotorii with the ancestral Hantei blade, in a burst of rage. Hantei Jodan was dead, killed by his own son, the Crown Prince of Rokugan, on the very eve of the edict's proclamation, announcing the Emperor's abdication, naming Daisetsu as his heir, and Shoju as Sesshō, Imperial Regent. Kachiko brought with her the Emperor's edict, instead to be protected by the Emerald Champion, Akodo Toturi, who had gone missing. His wife confessed she had plotted to maintain Sotorii as the Crown Prince in these dire hours instead to follow the late Emperor's desire, expecting to blackmail the new Emperor into compliance with their wishes. Shoju commanded to find Daisetsu and bring the Prince to his presence. After disputing with Kachiko in the aftermath of the Emperor's death, Shoju exiled Kachiko to Toshi Ranbo, far from the Imperial City of Otosan Uchi, and held her under house arrest for treason. She left Otosan Uchi in the company of the Bayushi Elite Guard. Shoju had instructed Chief Magistrate Bayushi Yojiro on the conditions of her stay: conditions that would prevent her from undermining Shoju's duty any further.

Assuming Command

Shoju assumes commands

In the absence of Toturi, who had disappeared, the acting Emerald Champion Agasha Sumiko proclaimed Shoju as Regent, and gave command of the newly arrived Army of the Rising Waves. His first command as regent was to give the Crab Clan control of the jade mines in Toshi Ranbo to support their fight against the Shadowlands. The edict also indicated that the Prince Sotorii would abdicate his claim upon the throne, but this part was delayed at Shoju's request. Shoju struggled against political opposition that claimed his position was illegitimate. The Lion and Unicorn were not officially at war, so Shoju utterly ignored Shinjo Altansarnai's aggression against the Lion. As part of a plan devised by the Imperial Chancellor Kakita Yoshi to undermine Shoju's grip on the Throne, the Unicorn ambasador Ide Tadaji pleaded that Shoju intervene in the Lion's invasion of Unicorn lands, a petition which was backed by Asako Togama, the Asako Daimyō, alongside with Doji Fumiki, against the opposition of Ikoma Ujiaki, the Lion ambassador. Shoju denied Tadaji's request.

Kunshu was Cursed

Kunshu, the ancestral sword of the Hantei which had been wielded to murder the late Hantei, was sent to Yogo Junzo for safekeeping. The Yogo Daimyō studied the sword and reported that ‘A curse of treason upon the blade of the Hantei.’

Arrested

Eventually Toturi and Sumiko appeared together at Imperial Court and resigned from their posts, accusing Shoju as the person behing the regicide of the late Emperor, what would be known as The Scorpion Clan Coup. Shortly after the Army of the Rising Wave seized the Imperial Palace, and its leader Mirumoto Hitomi put Shoju under arrest for the murder of the Emperor, to deliver him to the justice of the Imperial Chancellor. Kakita Yoshi replaced him as Regent. Shortly after Ikoma Ujiaki visited Shoju to broke an alliance against the new Regent.

A Black Scroll is Opened

The Castle of Learning had been assaulted, and the Black Scroll secured there, The Skin of Fu Leng, was moved to Otosan Uchi, within a Black Watch compound in the Hojize District. There, it was opened by Bayushi Shoju, who wrote the name of Ujiki on the parchment, gaving him a complete revelation of the most personal, most hidden secrets of the man that was Ujiaki. In order to announce his rebirth to the world, Shoju smeared black ink across his old crimson mempō. Shortly after he met Ujiaki and convinced him to claim leadership of the leaderless Imperial Legions, mostly consisted on Lion soldiers, to retake the Capital with the support of Scorpion forces stationed there. Led by Ujiaki, the Lion and Scorpion forces smashed through the southern gates of the Forbidden City, scattering the fragmented units of the Army of the Rising Wave and swallowing the Captain of the Imperial Guard Seppun Ishikawa's trapped guards. Shoju sent words to the Clans that they would attend under his rule, and that anyone who defied this order would drown in the nightmares he would unleash from the Shadowlands. His claim as a servant of the Dark God was a lie, and Shoju had already written in a encrypted letter his confession. On the 8th day of the Month of Hida, news of his allegiance to the Shadowlands reached the rest of the Clan, and Shoju was removed from Championship, which was vested on his wife Kachiko, who in turn, passed the leadership to Bayushi Yojiro.

The Shadowlands Assaults Rokugan

In the 18th day of the Month of Hida an assembled army of Crane, Lion, Phoenix, Scorpion, and Unicorn samurai began the assault of the capital, and the Army of the Rising Waves joined them, quarreling the usurpers within the Forbidden City. The Crane and Phoenix navies blockade the defender's port of entry, to starve them out. In the fifth Day of the Month of Togashi the Rokugani received word from the Crab that Hida Kisada had fallen, and Akuma no Oni's horde marched across their provinces with the discipline of a well-trained Shadowlands army. Ujiaki was killed in combat while defending the Inner City.

Death

In the 12th day of the Month of Togashi, Hitomi appeared in the Imperial Throne room wielding Itsuwari, the Ancestral Sword of the Scorpion Clan. By tradition, Itsuwari was supposed to strike down the Champion if he ever betrays the Empire. Hitomi struck Shoju down in personal combat with her wakizashi.

Preceded by: Unknown	Scorpion Clan Champion ? - 1123	Succeeded by: Bayushi Yojiro
Preceded by: Unknown	Bayushi Daimyō ? - 1123	Succeeded by: Bayushi Yojiro
Preceded by: Hantei the Thirty-Eighth	Imperial Regent 1123 - 1123	Succeeded by: Kakita Yoshi
Preceded by: Kakita Yoshi	Imperial Regent 1123 - 1123	Succeeded by: Unknown

External Links

Bayushi Shoju

• Bayushi Shoju (Core set)
• Bayushi Shoju (Shoju's Duty)

References

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